Fanfiction the 13th
Mar. 3rd, 2008 08:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tallulahgs[Title] Looking in Dreams
[Fandom] Harry Potter/Battle Royale/Malory Towers
[Rating] PG
[Notes/Summary] Three similar people meet in dreams. Written for and crossposted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
40fandoms.
1st year
Sirius couldn't sleep and so he climbs out of bed and walks down the silent corridor and wonders why he didn't ask that boy - James Potter, that's it - to come with him. (Because it's not an adventure, it's -) And he falls into sleeping as he walks and almost doesn't know where he is (and if he is lost and gets expelled won't that almost be better? They're going to be furious) and when he opens his eyes properly he's standing in a doorway, and sitting on the floor are a girl and a boy about the same age as him. They're playing cards, and both of them are in school uniforms, but Muggle-looking ones, not Hogwarts robes. Perhaps it's that which makes Sirius keep hanging around (if he's going to be a blood-traitor Gryffindor he may as well start now, right?) The girl is studying her cards and then she looks up and says to the boy, "I think you cheated. In fact, I'm sure you cheated." And the boy grins and says, "I don't need to cheat when I'm playing against girls." Sirius expects the girl to get cross, but she doesn't, she just raises an eyebrow and then turns to Sirius and says, Come and join us. Let's see if he needs to cheat against you." The stone floor is cold on Sirius's bare feet and the entire castle sleeps around him and he got Sorted into the wrong place and somehow he knows these two won't care if he is Gryffindor or Slytherin so he nods, comes sits down next to them and wins three out of the five games.
2nd year
This is going to be the one and only time Shinji Mimura chooses to stay after school, but he's sick of being at home. Dad keeps acting like he doesn't care about Uncle dying and Mum keeps crying prettily and acting like she has a right to care and Shinji doesn't know whether he cares or not (except that's bullshit, of course he cares, he just doesn't seem to feel like you do if you care about something) and so he stays in the library actually doing homework and when he's done that he gets up and starts walking through the corridors, listening to his trainers squeaking on the bare floor and feeling like someone (Uncle?) is watching him from round the corner -
it's not Uncle, it's them -
And then he passes Class B's homeroom and he sees Alicia and Sirius sitting on the desks, swinging their feet and Sirius is saying "And then we - we did something to the glue, right, to make it hard to spot -" They look up when Shinji walks in and smile when he says, "Glue? Elaborate, it's gotta be awesome just from that." And Sirius, laughing, goes back to the beginning of the story and Shinji notices when he slips up and says Muggle or wand and then, later, he purposely mentions CD players and notices how the other two look at him blankly, and it's all okay because it's not the real world, it's not the world which he's learning is cruel and gonna screw you over if you don't keep your head down, and Sirius and Alicia aren't saying lies like are you all right? You can talk about it, you know and that's good too.
3rd year
Alicia is tired of Sally being around and tired of watching Darrell try and appease her and tired (even, a little) of making Sally cross by cosying up to Darrell, and so she's glad when she spots Shinji and Sirius sitting in the woods at the end of the school ground - both of them are in the trees, lounging among the branches.
But of course the irritation at the stupidity of Sally and Darrell carries over to this, and she finds herself calling up to Shinji, "You are an idiot. How can you not know who won the last war?" And Shinji leaps down from the tree, his grubby white shoes sending up spatters of earth, and stands opposite her and says, "I never said I didn't know. You're the one who's saying it was the English."
"And you're the one who failed a history test last week." She almost sounds like she cares. She's been feeling like she cares about a lot of things (people) these last few weeks. And Shinji, laughing, has leant against the tree trunk and is leaning over her, saying "That wasn't real history. But trust me, we won." He smells of soap and tree bark. She tilts her face up so that it's very close to his, and says, "Don't talk as if you're cleverer than me, because we both know that's not true." He laughs and she feels it echo through him.
Then from her other side there's another thud as Sirius jumps to the ground, and, leaning over to break their stare, says, "World War Two... that was when Grindelwald was coming to power, right?" And they both look at him and say "Who's Grindelwald?" and he smirks and Alicia can see that he knew they wouldn't know, but that he just wanted to - be included? (Like Sally, but yet not.) He smells of ink and - of a scent that makes her think partly of boys and partly, for some reason, of dogs.
When she gets back to the common room the irritation is gone.
4th year
Sirius wakes up suddenly as if the bed tilted, and for a few moments he doesn't know who he is.
Alicia is kneeling at the end of his bed, like a shadow on the curtains. She's wearing pyjamas and her eyes are wide and sleepy.
"I heard... something like a typewriter..." she mumbles, and then laughs. "This is different from usual, isn't it? Where's Shinji?"
And it's cold and Sirius knows that outside the curtains there is nothing but a darkened room and the murmurs and snores of three somnolent boys, but. It's too cold and -
Since when has he been frightened of opening curtains?
He wrenches them back and there's nothing. (Of course there's nothing.) Alicia laughs again - an odd, awkward sound - and whispers, "I thought... I thought he would be here."
It occurs to Sirius that he's got a girl in his dorm, in his bed, and then he rejects it as not important. (It's this that will later convince him something wasn't right.) Alicia moves a little closer, and they both look round.
"Shinji?" she whispers at last.
"You're not hiding, are you?" But Sirius can feel it's too quiet for that.
Alicia is gripping his hand -
And then there's a shot and for a moment he sees Shinji, sprawled on his back, looking up at them, face eaten away by blood, eyes wide with surprise -
Sirius opens his eyes again. He's tangled up in bed and Alicia is gone and Remus is leaning over him, looking nervously and saying, "Are you okay? I thought I heard you yelling something."
Bad dream. That's all.
5th year
Alicia sometimes feels like both Shinji and Sirius have disappeared. They never saw Shinji again since that night (she finds herself making connections she doesn't want between all the things he said) and Sirius is...
... sourer, she decides.
By the pool, and his voice cuts flatly through the hiss of the waves. "You've got brothers, right, Johns? You said once." He's started calling her by her surname, and she can't tell if it's a joke or an insult.
"Yes."
"They much like you?"
Alicia stares at the dull grey sky above them. "Everyone says so. Why? Are you tired of talking to girls?"
Sirius snorts, doesn't answer. Eventually, with a twinge of annoyance that she's the one carrying the conversation, Alicia says, "Do you have a brother?"
"Yeah. Unfortunately."
"Goodness. What's that supposed to mean?"
"You know what?" Sirius says, turning to face her. "My family'd disown me if they knew I was talking to you."
"What?"
He smiles. Well, sneers, and the sea breeze flicks at his dark hair, messing it up even more. "Yeah, now you see. My family are... well, I bet they're not as happy as yours."
"Don't start pretending it's my fault you and your people don't get on," Alicia says, and right away she wishes she hadn't. (But she despises people who beg for sympathy, and she thought Sirius did too.)
Sirius's sneer grows sharper, and he jumps off the rocks, back onto the path. "I wish Shinji would show up again," he calls back to her. "I'm getting tired of talking to a stupid girl."
"I know, it's a such a pity he - he vanished," she manages to retort. "He was ever so much cleverer than you."
6th year
"This isn't your school," Alicia observes from her perch on James Potter's bedroom windowsill.
"Maybe it's because we're going to leave soon. You are too, right?"
"Yes. I'm going to St Andrews."
Sirius can't remember what she means, but he grins and acts impressed anyway. He isn't sure if she remembers their fight, but he feels kind of bad about it. He was so angry about everything before. Now he's moved into James's house it's like... taking off an itchy shirt.
"What about you?" she asks.
"I don't know yet."
"Do you think," Alicia says, "that this will keep happening, when we do leave?"
"I don't know. I mean... how do we know this isn't a dream, anyway?"
"We both decided to write Shinji out of it, then?" she says, raising her chin.
"Maybe I'm dreaming this, and you don't exist at all."
"Oh, of course you would decide you're the real one," she laughs.
"I am real!"
"Of course you are," she says, mockingly, and slides off the windowsill and leans over him, tapping him on the nose.
He almost says something else. But then he changes his mind at the last second and proposes one more game of Exploding Snap, for old times' sake.
***
In Azkaban he looks for both of them, but if they were dreams he isn't dreaming them any more.
[Fandom] Harry Potter/Battle Royale/Malory Towers
[Rating] PG
[Notes/Summary] Three similar people meet in dreams. Written for and crossposted to
40fandoms.1st year
Sirius couldn't sleep and so he climbs out of bed and walks down the silent corridor and wonders why he didn't ask that boy - James Potter, that's it - to come with him. (Because it's not an adventure, it's -) And he falls into sleeping as he walks and almost doesn't know where he is (and if he is lost and gets expelled won't that almost be better? They're going to be furious) and when he opens his eyes properly he's standing in a doorway, and sitting on the floor are a girl and a boy about the same age as him. They're playing cards, and both of them are in school uniforms, but Muggle-looking ones, not Hogwarts robes. Perhaps it's that which makes Sirius keep hanging around (if he's going to be a blood-traitor Gryffindor he may as well start now, right?) The girl is studying her cards and then she looks up and says to the boy, "I think you cheated. In fact, I'm sure you cheated." And the boy grins and says, "I don't need to cheat when I'm playing against girls." Sirius expects the girl to get cross, but she doesn't, she just raises an eyebrow and then turns to Sirius and says, Come and join us. Let's see if he needs to cheat against you." The stone floor is cold on Sirius's bare feet and the entire castle sleeps around him and he got Sorted into the wrong place and somehow he knows these two won't care if he is Gryffindor or Slytherin so he nods, comes sits down next to them and wins three out of the five games.
2nd year
This is going to be the one and only time Shinji Mimura chooses to stay after school, but he's sick of being at home. Dad keeps acting like he doesn't care about Uncle dying and Mum keeps crying prettily and acting like she has a right to care and Shinji doesn't know whether he cares or not (except that's bullshit, of course he cares, he just doesn't seem to feel like you do if you care about something) and so he stays in the library actually doing homework and when he's done that he gets up and starts walking through the corridors, listening to his trainers squeaking on the bare floor and feeling like someone (Uncle?) is watching him from round the corner -
it's not Uncle, it's them -
And then he passes Class B's homeroom and he sees Alicia and Sirius sitting on the desks, swinging their feet and Sirius is saying "And then we - we did something to the glue, right, to make it hard to spot -" They look up when Shinji walks in and smile when he says, "Glue? Elaborate, it's gotta be awesome just from that." And Sirius, laughing, goes back to the beginning of the story and Shinji notices when he slips up and says Muggle or wand and then, later, he purposely mentions CD players and notices how the other two look at him blankly, and it's all okay because it's not the real world, it's not the world which he's learning is cruel and gonna screw you over if you don't keep your head down, and Sirius and Alicia aren't saying lies like are you all right? You can talk about it, you know and that's good too.
3rd year
Alicia is tired of Sally being around and tired of watching Darrell try and appease her and tired (even, a little) of making Sally cross by cosying up to Darrell, and so she's glad when she spots Shinji and Sirius sitting in the woods at the end of the school ground - both of them are in the trees, lounging among the branches.
But of course the irritation at the stupidity of Sally and Darrell carries over to this, and she finds herself calling up to Shinji, "You are an idiot. How can you not know who won the last war?" And Shinji leaps down from the tree, his grubby white shoes sending up spatters of earth, and stands opposite her and says, "I never said I didn't know. You're the one who's saying it was the English."
"And you're the one who failed a history test last week." She almost sounds like she cares. She's been feeling like she cares about a lot of things (people) these last few weeks. And Shinji, laughing, has leant against the tree trunk and is leaning over her, saying "That wasn't real history. But trust me, we won." He smells of soap and tree bark. She tilts her face up so that it's very close to his, and says, "Don't talk as if you're cleverer than me, because we both know that's not true." He laughs and she feels it echo through him.
Then from her other side there's another thud as Sirius jumps to the ground, and, leaning over to break their stare, says, "World War Two... that was when Grindelwald was coming to power, right?" And they both look at him and say "Who's Grindelwald?" and he smirks and Alicia can see that he knew they wouldn't know, but that he just wanted to - be included? (Like Sally, but yet not.) He smells of ink and - of a scent that makes her think partly of boys and partly, for some reason, of dogs.
When she gets back to the common room the irritation is gone.
4th year
Sirius wakes up suddenly as if the bed tilted, and for a few moments he doesn't know who he is.
Alicia is kneeling at the end of his bed, like a shadow on the curtains. She's wearing pyjamas and her eyes are wide and sleepy.
"I heard... something like a typewriter..." she mumbles, and then laughs. "This is different from usual, isn't it? Where's Shinji?"
And it's cold and Sirius knows that outside the curtains there is nothing but a darkened room and the murmurs and snores of three somnolent boys, but. It's too cold and -
Since when has he been frightened of opening curtains?
He wrenches them back and there's nothing. (Of course there's nothing.) Alicia laughs again - an odd, awkward sound - and whispers, "I thought... I thought he would be here."
It occurs to Sirius that he's got a girl in his dorm, in his bed, and then he rejects it as not important. (It's this that will later convince him something wasn't right.) Alicia moves a little closer, and they both look round.
"Shinji?" she whispers at last.
"You're not hiding, are you?" But Sirius can feel it's too quiet for that.
Alicia is gripping his hand -
And then there's a shot and for a moment he sees Shinji, sprawled on his back, looking up at them, face eaten away by blood, eyes wide with surprise -
Sirius opens his eyes again. He's tangled up in bed and Alicia is gone and Remus is leaning over him, looking nervously and saying, "Are you okay? I thought I heard you yelling something."
Bad dream. That's all.
5th year
Alicia sometimes feels like both Shinji and Sirius have disappeared. They never saw Shinji again since that night (she finds herself making connections she doesn't want between all the things he said) and Sirius is...
... sourer, she decides.
By the pool, and his voice cuts flatly through the hiss of the waves. "You've got brothers, right, Johns? You said once." He's started calling her by her surname, and she can't tell if it's a joke or an insult.
"Yes."
"They much like you?"
Alicia stares at the dull grey sky above them. "Everyone says so. Why? Are you tired of talking to girls?"
Sirius snorts, doesn't answer. Eventually, with a twinge of annoyance that she's the one carrying the conversation, Alicia says, "Do you have a brother?"
"Yeah. Unfortunately."
"Goodness. What's that supposed to mean?"
"You know what?" Sirius says, turning to face her. "My family'd disown me if they knew I was talking to you."
"What?"
He smiles. Well, sneers, and the sea breeze flicks at his dark hair, messing it up even more. "Yeah, now you see. My family are... well, I bet they're not as happy as yours."
"Don't start pretending it's my fault you and your people don't get on," Alicia says, and right away she wishes she hadn't. (But she despises people who beg for sympathy, and she thought Sirius did too.)
Sirius's sneer grows sharper, and he jumps off the rocks, back onto the path. "I wish Shinji would show up again," he calls back to her. "I'm getting tired of talking to a stupid girl."
"I know, it's a such a pity he - he vanished," she manages to retort. "He was ever so much cleverer than you."
6th year
"This isn't your school," Alicia observes from her perch on James Potter's bedroom windowsill.
"Maybe it's because we're going to leave soon. You are too, right?"
"Yes. I'm going to St Andrews."
Sirius can't remember what she means, but he grins and acts impressed anyway. He isn't sure if she remembers their fight, but he feels kind of bad about it. He was so angry about everything before. Now he's moved into James's house it's like... taking off an itchy shirt.
"What about you?" she asks.
"I don't know yet."
"Do you think," Alicia says, "that this will keep happening, when we do leave?"
"I don't know. I mean... how do we know this isn't a dream, anyway?"
"We both decided to write Shinji out of it, then?" she says, raising her chin.
"Maybe I'm dreaming this, and you don't exist at all."
"Oh, of course you would decide you're the real one," she laughs.
"I am real!"
"Of course you are," she says, mockingly, and slides off the windowsill and leans over him, tapping him on the nose.
He almost says something else. But then he changes his mind at the last second and proposes one more game of Exploding Snap, for old times' sake.
***
In Azkaban he looks for both of them, but if they were dreams he isn't dreaming them any more.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-03-04 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-04 12:40 pm (UTC)As far as I know, Alicia survived and made it to university; I sort of meant to end up with it focusing on her but Sirius elbowed his way in instead XD
no subject
Date: 2008-03-04 01:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-04 12:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-04 12:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-05 12:42 pm (UTC)